The invention relates to instruments used for preparing surgical sites in endosseous structures. More particularly, the invention relates to dental drills for endosseous implant procedures.
Dental implantation procedures require preparation of a surgical site, including penetration into bone structures. There are a number of dental implant drilling systems known, most of which are characterized by standard twist or spade drill designs.
Commercially available dental implant spade drills include a web sized chisel edge having no cutting flutes adjacent the center axis of the drill. Without cutting flutes, the tip of the drill displaces material rather than cutting it which requires a relatively high force to be applied to advance the drill.
The difficulty with prior art designs is that the force necessary to advance these conventional drill designs creates excessive frictional heating at the drill point-bone interface. This frictional heat creates a risk of the bone overheating and dying, which reduces the chance of the implants to surgically succeed.
It is desirable to optimize drill cutting surfaces to reduce the chance of overheating of the bone structure by reducing the principle cutting force needed and the time necessary to advance the drill.